Friday, July 9, 2021

i went clubbing

i decided to buy a box of 2021 stadium club. i figured it was the easiest way to get my hands on the product which is typically a highlight of the year. i had fun opening the packs and seeing the cards and wasn't even disappointed to not find jackie robinson's card which topps has ruined by wrongly coloring the number on the back of his jersey red.

anyway, here are the highlights from my box:

ernie banks
the mlb anniversary patch always brings good color to cards

ty cobb
a different image for the georgia peach!

lou gehrig
the luckiest man on the face of the earth

rickey henderson
classic rickey stealing third at yankee stadium

reggie jackson
final season reggie doesn't show up on cards very often

derek jeter
the patented jump throw

don mattingly
if you stare at this one long enough, it looks like mattingly is lying on the grass soaking up some rays

babe ruth
the babe joins the big bat on cardboard club!

honus wagner
another new image for an all-time great

my oversized boxtopper was this jacob degrom card
currently the best pitcher in the game.

according to the odds, red foil parallels fall 1:3 packs. i beat those odds with 7 cards in 16 packs. 

ha-seong kim
there have been 25 players from or born in south korea since chan ho park debuted in 1994.  speaking of which...

hyun-jin ryu
ryu was the third south korean to pitch for the dodgers.

whit merrifield
here's where things took a central division turn...

yadier molina
red parallels of cardinals make sense, as do red parallels of reds...

johnny bench
there is a lot going on here from the tie to the thing on bench's shoulder to the balloons. according to gettyimages, this is what bench wore as he presented the lineup card prior to his final game in cincy. i am guessing topps took some liberties with the balloon coloring, but the colors they used add interest to the card rather than more red and white (which would make the most sense to me regarding the actual color of the balloons). 

willie mays
this is another photo from cincinnati which was the site of the 1970 all-star game. you can tell it's a midsummer classic thanks to the variety of headwear in the dugout. that's one of the best things about the all-star game but rob manfred doesn't seem to understand.

black foil parallels run 1:8 packs, and i was spot on with this box.  first up, nelson cruz
he has been great for the twins and has had some good cards during his tenure in the twin cities

fernando tatis jr
i don't care for the padres but i really enjoy watching tatis jr play.

triumvirates fall one per box, and i wound up with francisco lindor
he's wearing the 2021 version of the tom seaver memorial patch. i'll have a further post on that tomorrow.

i got two virtual reality inserts - jose abreu and jose ramirez - which is right on with the stated odds
those two joses continue the american league central vibe of the box, as does the one superstar duos card i received
luis robert and eloy jimenez are both on the injured list at the moment, but the white sox seem stacked.

here's one of the two autographs i was promised - it's daulton varsho
he's playing the outfield in dodger stadium here.

the other autograph i found was of garrett crochet
more al central hits. crochet was drafted in 2020 and debuted a couple months after the draft. he throws the ball real hard.

stadium club greats fall 1:8 packs and i found george brett
and nolan ryan
in my box.

chrome parallels are 1 per box, and mine was randy johnson
i was surprised to see him shown as a mariner rather than a diamondback.

i beat the odds with a couple other inserts, including this photographer's proof card
those are 1:513 odds. not sure there is big demand for nico hoerner cards, though. plus, here's his base card:
i fail to see any difference between the two which is always the case with these "proof" cards. just a gimmick.

the other card i found that was unexpected was this black parallel of frank thomas' stadium club greats card
it's numbered to 99
and those are only found in 1 of 723 packs on average. those are most of the legends and inserts from the box. now let's see some dodgers

cody bellinger
robbing austin meadows in the first game of the 2020 world series

mookie betts
after he robbed marcell ozuna in game 6 of the nlcs

max muncy
after hitting his first inning grand slam in game 3 of the nlcs against the braves.

walker buehler
after scoring a run in a game back in 2019.

those four cards are the types of cards stadium club has become known for, but they also have run of the mill cards.

gavin lux
mitch white
tony gonsolin
which i just noticed is a red foil parallel, giving me 7 in 16 packs.

here's corey seager
turning two, which means i'll add another one of his cards for my mini-collection.

tim anderson
is already there.

i also found one of daulton varsho's base cards
that will go in to my dodger stadium collection

this ozzie albies card
slides in (pun intended) to my lurker collection thanks to austin barnes and brusdar graterol also being in the frame. 

i have pretty much decided to make my "name/number on the back" mini-collection official, so khris davis
and stan the man musial
are keepers for me.

same goes for these three cards of deivi garcia
bryce harper
and alex bregman
who are all playing on tatooine. the garcia card is especially interesting because of the drought-like conditions on his card with the dried and cracking mudscape. 

last card to show is cal ripken jr
whose card gains entry in to the aforementioned lurker collection thanks to wade boggs being present.

i am heading to a card show tomorrow morning, and i am hoping to find some other singles from the set. let me know if there is something i can try to find for you!

13 comments:

  1. Some cool photos. I would need binder pages with slots for ho cards before I buy any packs or boxes though.

    I've seen that Bench card in every blog post about this set.

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    1. the bench card is so different that i expect it to continue to show up in posts

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  2. I don't know, the colorizing of balloons to whatever you want is a bit weird to me. It now makes me want to know what color they REALLY were.

    I can't get over how bored I am with SC inserts. Still love those base cards though.

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    1. i agree about the inserts. they are pretty useless in a release like this.

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  3. Lots of great images. Very happy with the one they chose for Rickey. I don't know who the White Sox pitcher is, but Topps hooked him up with one awesome rookie card photo.

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    1. there must be hundreds of fantastic rickey photos to choose from, and they did pick a good one here.

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  4. Nice Deivi, though he's been pitching very badly this season both for the Yankees and AAA. Hopefully he'll straighten out his season.

    Looks like a fun rip.

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    1. i did have fun opening these packs. it had been a while since i had busted a box (just about a year).

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  5. Really nice pictures, wish the names were easier to read. On the Rickey card there is bunting on the stands in the background - '81 playoffs?

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    1. bo you are correct. i took a quick look at getty images and they just say circa 1981, but i think it's from game 2 of the 1981 alcs. if so, it's not a stolen base but rather a triple.

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  6. So would this be considered to be a good box? It seems like it is to me, but I don't know who either of the signers are, so...

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    Replies
    1. i considered it to be a good box, yes. not worried about dollar value or anything like that.

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  7. Excellent! Thanks for showing them off!

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